French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation on Saturday morning prior to the quadrilateral summit on the Syrian settlement in Istanbul, BFM TV channel said citing a source at the Elysee Palace.

Macron particularly emphasized the necessity of a political settlement of the Syrian conflict, the source said. He also wants the participants of the summit to pledge to prevent the use of chemical weapons, as well as observe a ceasefire in the long-term in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster, the channel said.

The Kremlin press service has issued no reports about such a conversation yet.